Error, Authentication is required

Question

I've found similar questions to this one and followed the advice without much success.

I'm writing my first app and I'm adding inapp purchases. When 'mHelper.launchPurchaseFlow' is called the app displays the message box 'Error, Authentication is required. You need to sign in to your Google account'

I am signed in. I tried removing the account and reinstating it. i tried creating a new account and using it instead. I tried the app on two different tablets with the same result.

Here is a sample of my code. The purchase item is set up in my google developer console. My code calls 'buy_two_stars' only after mHelper.startSetup() returns a success.

The value in the purchaseprogress variable indicates it never gets past the buy_two_stars() function:

public void buy_two_stars()
{
    mHelper.launchPurchaseFlow(this,"item_stars",1001,purchasedit,"");
    PurchaseProgress=0;
}



IabHelper.OnIabPurchaseFinishedListener purchasedit=new IabHelper.OnIabPurchaseFinishedListener() {

@Override
public void onIabPurchaseFinished(IabResult result, Purchase info) 
{
    if(result.isFailure())
    {
        PurchaseProgress=-1;
    }
    else if(info.getSku().equals("item_stars") )
    {
        purchaseditem=info;
        mHelper.consumeAsync(info,consumerfunc);
        PurchaseProgress=1;
    }   
}
};
IabHelper.OnConsumeFinishedListener consumerfunc=new IabHelper.OnConsumeFinishedListener() 
{

    @Override
    public void onConsumeFinished(Purchase purchase, IabResult result) {
    if(result.isFailure())
    { 
        PurchaseProgress=-1;
    }
    else 
    {
        PurchaseProgress=0;
    }   
}
};

many thanks.

Answer 1

Have you published your app yet?

According to Google documentation:

"Draft Apps are No Longer Supported

Previously, you could publish a "draft" version of your app for testing. This functionality is no longer supported. Instead, there are two ways you can test how a pre-release app functions on the Google Play store:

• You can publish an app to the alpha or beta distribution channels. This makes the app available on the Google Play store, but only to the testers you put on a "whitelist".
• In a few cases, you can test Google Play functionality with an unpublished app. For example, you can test an unpublished app's in-app billing support by using static responses, special reserved product IDs that always return a specific result (like "purchased" or "refunded")."

Source: http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#draft_apps

So to test with real product IDs, I'm afraid you need to publish the app.

Answer 2

I was having the same problem and I didn't see anything outstanding in your code. I bet you did the same as me. Uploaded your APK to alpha, beta, or production and then tried to make it work. You must PUBLISH it in the top right corner. Then wait about 12 hours for it to become fully functional.